Poem by Gus Laessig – Original Artwork by Ann Ernandez for Paradigm Magazine
 

Today, my knee hurts forever

 
 
My knee’s been sore
for a week or so,
it aches me today
and my walk has slowed.
I’m twenty-five today,
and I’ve lived
a third of my life.

I take it like gray hair
and wrinkles.
My knee tells me
that I’ve lived.
I slid through school,
tapped backboards,
and kicked asphalt.
I ran from troubles
and I chased girls.

My knee hurts badly today.
I’m limping and it’s
just getting worse.
It hurts because
my first two fathers died,
and mom’s still a junkie.

It hurts when I visit
my sister in jail,
and it hurts when
I think about the girl
that made me
fall to my knees.